James Turrell Skyspace Opens at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark
A breathtaking new cultural landmark has officially opened its doors to the public. The highly anticipated James Turrell Skyspace at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum is now welcoming visitors to Aarhus, Denmark.
Known formally as As Seen Below – The Dome, the massive installation is the result of a tight-knit creative collaboration between world-renowned light artist James Turrell and the acclaimed Danish architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL). The opening marks the triumphant completion of the museum’s multi-phase expansion initiative, known as The Next Level.
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A Masterful Blend of Art and Architecture
The new Skyspace pushes the boundaries of traditional spatial design. According to SHL Project Director Jette Birkeskov, the collaborative space purposefully blurs the line between fine art and functional architecture.
Visitors are invited into a structural environment where light, mass, and form work together in perfect harmony to create a profoundly immersive, deeply reflective atmosphere.
This project also marks another chapter in SHL’s long-standing relationship with the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. The firm previously collaborated with visionary artist Olafur Eliasson on the museum’s iconic, colorful rooftop ring, Your Rainbow Panorama, which opened to global acclaim in 2011. To learn more about innovative architectural portfolios across Europe, visit the official Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects portal.
The World’s Largest Museum Skyspace
The structural footprint of this installation is unprecedented for an indoor art setting. Key dimensions of the new James Turrell Skyspace include:
- Total Footprint: Spans approximately 43,000 square feet.
- The Dome Diameter: Measures more than 130 feet across.
- Vertical Height: Rises nearly 50 feet high into the Aarhus skyline.
According to museum officials, this is officially the largest Skyspace James Turrell has ever executed within a museum facility. Museum Director Rebecca Matthews described the installation as Turrell’s most monumental Skyspace project to date, noting that the architecture explicitly forces visitors to slow down and experience light, time, and space in a deeper, more intentional way.
An Ever-Changing, Immersive Light Journey
The journey into the artwork begins before visitors even see the light. Guests enter the massive dome through a specially designed underground corridor connected directly to the existing museum galleries.
Once inside the heart of The Dome, visitors are enveloped in a carefully calibrated environment filled with shifting monochromatic colors and natural light. True to Turrell’s signature style, the interior illumination changes continuously throughout the day. These shifting tones respond dynamically to the real-time movement of natural daylight outside, ensuring an evolving, distinct visual experience during every single visit.
Where Nature and Contemporary Art Merge
What sets this permanent installation apart is its absolute vulnerability to the natural world. Because the changing outdoor weather and ambient light conditions alter the dome’s atmosphere minute by minute, visitors can witness firsthand how human perception and color theory shift over time.
At ARoS, the natural environment is not excluded from the building—instead, both the crisp, early morning dawn and the final blue hour of the evening are actively captured, becoming living, breathing components of the artwork itself.
Completing ‘The Next Level’ Expansion
The grand opening of As Seen Below – The Dome represents the final piece of The Next Level expansion project at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. Through this ambitious, subterranean and structural addition, the museum firmly cements its position as one of Northern Europe’s premier cultural destinations, giving visitors an entirely new way to experience the intersection of light, architecture, and contemporary art.
